Sachusetts



(No Model.)

A. A. ARTHUR, H. F. SPAULDING & W. DAVISON.

FENCE POST.

No. 277,657. Patented May 15,1883.

W itnessee UNITED STATES PATENT which.

ALEXANDER A. ARTHUR AND EBENEZER F.'SPAULDING, OF BOSTON, MAS- SAOHUSETTS, AND WILLIAM DAVISON, OF HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY.

FENCE-POST.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters PatentNo. 277,657, dated May 1.5, 1883,

Application filed October 26, 1882; (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, ALEXANDER A. A THUR, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, and EBENEZER F. SPAULDING, a citizen of the United States, both residents of Boston, Suffolk county, Massachusetts, and WILLIAM DAVI- SON, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, and residing at Hoboken, Hudson county, New Jersey, have invented new and useful Improvements in Fence-Posts, of which the following is a specification.

Our-invention consists of around solid or hollow cast-iron post for wire fences with a screwpoint, hexagon, octagon, or square head or 1 collar for the application of a wrench to screw it into the ground, and with integral or attached buttons or jaws for the connection of the wires of the fencing material, the same being constructed and arranged as and for the purposes hereinafter described, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation of our improved fence-post, and Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation 2 of it.

5 We propose tomake a cast-iron post, a, preferably of round and taper form in the body, and also preferably hollow, but solid, if preferred, with a spiral foot or base, 12, terminat- 0 ing in taper screwpoiut c, for enabling the post to be set in the ground by screwing it in, without first making a hole, by means of a wrench, for which we provide a hexagon, octagon, or square head, (I, or collar near the head. ,We prefer to make the spiral foot or base portion in the form of a helix by casting it on the core, by which the body is made hollow, or an extension of the same, making the screw without a central core, where the metal would not only be useless as a means of securely holding the post in the ground, but would prevent the screw from holding as well as without it, besides being an obstruction to the screwing of the post into the ground. At the junction of the screw with the body of the post we provide a collar or flange, e, for a base to rest on the surface of the ground for stability, said flange being integral with the substance of the post. For connecting the wires to the post, particularly the upper ones, we may employ studs or buttons f, integral with the body, on which the wires may be secured by opening a space between the strands with a pointed instrument, slipping them over the head of the button and 5 5 allowing them to close on the stem behind the head by the tension of the twisted wires; but for a more secure method, and for a renewable contrivance, we propose to employ attachable buttons 9, of forged or other ductile metal, having horns to receive and be closed around the wires, and being secured by a T or L headed shank, t, passed through slot j and turned and dropped in notch It, so that the head is lodged under a lug, l, with in the hollow of the post, where the-wire maintains it securely against disconnection so long as the wire is secured to the button. in case the prongs break and the wire escapes, the button can be readily taken out and a new one putin.

By the hollow form of the post the requisite strength may be obtained without as much metal as would be required in the solid form, and we therefore prefer to make them hol' low. The hollow form also facilitates the use of the removable buttons g. If desired, the body maybe fluted or grooved as a further means of increasing the strength for a given weight of metal.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent. is-

1. A solid or hollow cast-iron fence-post, 00, having a helical base or foot, b, terminating 85 in a taper screw-point, 0, also having an integral base-flange, e, and a wrench collar or head, cl, and being provided with buttons for the connection of the fence-wires, substantially as described. 9o

2. The combination of prongcd buttons g, having a T or equivalent shank, 1', with a hollow fence-post having slotj, notch k, and lug l, substantially as described.

In witness whereof we have hereunto signed 5 our names in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ALEX. A. ARTHUR. EBENEZEB F. SPAULDING. WILLIAM DAVlSON.

Witnesses to Arthur and Spaulding:

,WM. Mormon,

WILLIAM Gnarls. W'itnesses to Davison:

A. P. THAYER, W. J. MORGAN. 

